Indledning
In Mark Slouka’s short story “Crossing” from 2009 a divorced father takes his son on a camping trip in order to re-establish a close relationship with him and maybe, in turn, with his ex-wife.
However, the simple father and son trip into nature suddenly turns into a life-and- death situation where the main character is forced to confront a more serious problem than his own divorce.
The end of the short story leaves the reader’s heart pumping with suspense: Will they make it?
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Uddrag
”They’d get out of this. They had to get out of this. My God, all his other fuckups were just preparations for this.
This wasn’t possible. He could feel the current – strong, insistent, pumping against his thigh like a drunken lover. Was this how it went” (l. 135-137).
This transformation in language is called free indirect discourse. The narrator and the father’s voice blend. In these passages, the sentences are short and abrupt.
These sentences are contrasted to the longer sentences, which are dominant in the short story. This emphasises the stressed and panicked situation the father experiences and creates suspense.
A very descriptive, almost lyric, style of writing in the start slowly develops into a fast and confusing end. In other words, the pace of narration quickens.
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